It was a good week for…
MIKE KNOEDL The career wildlife officer/supervisor was tapped to head the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. Knoedl’s predecessor, Loren Hitchcock, got enmeshed in the heavy politicking that attends the customary efforts by the politically appointed commissioners to run things and an unhappy employee review of the agency and commissioner meddling.
‘A STRATEGICAL ALLIANCE’ The Arkansas Legislative Council approved the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences’ $720,000 contract with consulting firm Deloitte to study a possible merger of services with St. Vincent. Deloitte has said its study should be completed by the end of the year.
It was a bad week for…
LITTE ROCK POLICE DEPARTMENT Chris Erwin and Blake Mitchell filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Little Rock Police Lt. David Hudson, Police Chief Stuart Thomas, the city of Little Rock and Donnie Ferneau, a former Hillcrest restaurant owner, over their arrest at the restaurant Oct. 29. Erwin was beaten by Hudson, employed by Ferneau’s as a private security guard, seemingly for objecting to Hudson’s order that he leave the restaurant. He was charged with trespass, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Mitchell wasn’t beaten, but also was arrested for obstructing government operations, trespass, disorderly conduct and public intoxication. The charges were dismissed in Sherwood District Court after police failed to comply with the defense’s efforts to obtain records about Hudson’s past disciplinary history.
CHARLIE FUQUA The Republican state House candidate from Batesville, who writes in his book “God’s Law: The Only Political Solution” in favor of the death penalty for rebellious children, took to the radio to defend his record. He said he’s been taken out of context. Plus, he didn’t write the Bible where that passage about stoning children appears, God did. He defended supporting sterilization for people who don’t pay child support. He also defended writing that Social Security is “the worst program ever devised in the United States.” Ditto for writing that it would be “kind and caring” to build two fences along the Mexican border, with a space in between, and shoot anyone found between the two fences. THAT, he says, will stop meth traffic. “Nobody’s going to die because nobody will enter that area,” he said.
MIKE HUCKABEE Always searching for a laugh line, the former Arkansas governor “joked” on Facebook that women are worse at mult-tasking because of their menstrual cycles.